RoadTrippin' 9: Port Hudson Valor and a Delayed Medal of Honor

According to one account, Francis Warren received a serious scalp wound in the attack and initially was mistaken for dead, however, an alert doctor noticed he was alive and pulled him from the mass burial trench before it was covered. 

Another account says that after his entire platoon was destroyed by  Confederate bombardment, he was wounded but still managed to disable the enemy artillery.

Another account says that he was knocked down when the fascine he was carrying was struck by an artillery shall and he lay unconscious for several hours.

This same last account says that later, Congress recognized the valor of the volunteers and awarded them Medals of Honor.

The date of issue for Francis Warren's Medal of Honor was  September 30, 1893.  At the time, he was also serving his first term as U.S. Senator from Wyoming.

It's citation reads:

Volunteered in response to a call, and took part in a movement that was made upon  the enemy's works under a heavy fire therefrom in advance of the general assault.

I just have to wonder how much his service as Wyoming territorial governor and first U.S. governor and being in the U.S. Senate had to do with it.

--Old Secesh

RoadTrippin-- Part 3: And, Now for Your Itinerary

Now, I have already been down this road before and know what we'll be seeing.  You don't, however.  Si, here is a partial itinerary of where we'll be going.  (Not necessarily in order, though.)  And, all of these are not Civil War.  Like I say, when we're Roadtrippin' we don't know where we'll go or end up.

An international incident (just solved a few years ago)

A belated Civil War Medal of Honor

A governor

The Battle of Shiloh

Three Bells

One new SUV

An insurrection

The Forlorn Hope

Hell Roaring Jake

Belangiga, Samar

And, That's Not All.  There's More to Come.  --Old Secesh

The Battles of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson-- Part 1

From the May 16, 2021, Northwest Arkansas Democrat  Gazette  "Phillips discusses Civil War battles" by Rachel  Dickerson.

Dale Phillips spoke before the Bella Vista Civil War Round Table on May 6 about the battles of Port Hudson and Baton Rouge in 1863.

This latter battle is the one where Francis E. Warren of the 49th Massachusetts was seriously wounded, but recovered and eventually ended up in Wyoming after the war where he became a wealthy man and served as that state's first governor and long-time U.S. senator. I have written a lot about him.  Just click on the Warren label below.

Union troops were moving up the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to Vicksburg and the Confederates realized they needed to stop them from occupying the Red River, which was a major supply route.  Disease hit the Union forces, however, and they fell back to Baton Rouge.

--Old Secesh

Joseph J. Gravely

From Wikipedia.

JOSEPH J. GRAVELY  

September 25, 1828 - April 28, 1872 

He was the commander of the 14th Missouri Cavalry which was James Bolin's outfit.  James Bolin married Helen Jackson who died this past December 2020 and is regarded as the Last Civil War Widow.

Born in Henry County, Virginia.  He attended public schools as a child,  engaged in agricultural pursuits and taught school.  He studied law  and was admitted to the bar in Virginia and had a practice there.   On 1853 and 1854 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

In 1854, he moved to Missouri and was a delegate to  the Missouri Constitutional Convention in 1860.

During the Civil War, Gravely served as colonel of the  8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry Regiment in the Union Army.  In addition, he was a member of the Missouri Senate in 1862 and 1864.

In 1866, he was elected  as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives and served there from 1867 to 1969.

After that, he was elected lieutenant governor of Missouri on 1870 and served under Governor B. Gratz Brown 1871 until his death in Stockton, Missouri, on April 28, 1872.  He was interred in Lindley Prairie Cemetery near Bear Creek, Missouri.

--Old Secesh

Lee Button Found in Unearthed Time Capsule

From the July 2, 2020, Central Maine  "Lee button found  in time capsule  under Confederate monument."

A button that experts believe  was from Confederate General Robert E. Lee's dress coat and a strand of hair  from his horse are among the items found in the time capsule that was removed from the Confederate monument that stood on the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol recently.  The monument had stood there for 125 years.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources said the metal box of the time capsule had been seriously damaged over the years by the elements and had rust on it.

Also found in the capsule:  Confederate money, song books and flags and a stone believed to be from the Gettysburg Battlefield.  There were also 1895 newspapers from across the state.

North Carolina's governor ordered this statue and others on the state capitol grounds removed for "public safety" after BLMers and their white minions attacked the statues and even lynched one of the Confederate soldiers in the statue.

Well, at least one good thing about all this Confederadication.

And You Figured BLMers Would be Against Lynching.  --Old Secesh

10 Facts About Phil Sheridan-- Part 6: His Statue in Albany

10.  THE UNVEILING OF HIS STATUE IN ALBANY DREW A HUGE CROWD.

Sheridan died in 1888 and three decades later a movement started in New York to erect a statue honoring him.  Apparently Ohio had taken the lead in claiming  the famous general as its own and New York wanted to get in on the action.

New York's governor, Martin Glynn, publicly started off the campaign, and called for the people of Albany  to raise $10,000 for the monument.  If the city accomplished this, he said the legislature to put up $20,000.  Glynn remarked:  State pride and local pride demand that this be done."

--Old Secesh

10 Facts About Phil Sheridan-- Part 4: "The Only Good Indians I Ever Saw Were Dead"

**  6.   HE WASN'T A FAN OF TEXAS

After the war, Sheridan went to Texas and Louisiana to oversee Reconstruction there.    He's credited with being an opponent to corruption and  stirred things up when he dismissed the governor of Texas.  He ended up being removed by President Johnson who reportedly told U.S. Grant that Sheridan's term there had "been one of  absolute tyranny."

Sheridan, for his part, wasn't too impressed with Texas.  Reportedly he once said:  "If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell."

************************************

**  7.  HE OVERSAW BRUTAL CAMPAIGNS AGAINST NATIVE AMERICANS --  AND BISON

His postwar career also had him overseeing military campaign against the Indians of the West.  And, he employed the same "scorched earth" tactics he had used against the Confederates.  In addition, he gave little consideration to non-combatants who got in his way, meaning Indian women, children and the elderly received harsh treatment.

It was during this time, that Sheridan supposedly uttered the words:  "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."

Another casualty of his Indian Wars were the bison.  Since they were such an important part of the Plains Indians life, he urged the widespread, over-hunting of the animals.  He brought in hunters to take out the herds, telling them:  "For a lasting peace,let them kill, skin and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated."

One Has to Wonder Why There Has Not Been a Movement to Take Down His Statues.  --Old Secesh

Illinois' Gov. "Toilets" Bans Confederate Railroad Band

In the last post I mentioned this group being cancelled at a county fair.

The governor banned the country group Confederate Railroad from playing at the Illinois State Fair in August because of the name and Confederate flag on their logo.  He also banned them from the Du Quoin State Fair.

I guess, in truth, the governor, known for his love of toilets, was fearful that the overflow crowds who would come  out to see  the band would be too much for the state fair bathrooms and to avoid an unpleasant scene, he had them cancelled.

However, they will be playing at the Black Diamond Harley-Davidson party in Marion, Illinois, on September 5.

And, Liz and I had been considering going to the Illinois State Fair this year.

Not Now.  --Old Secesh

Francis E. Warren-- Part 2: Moved to Wyoming, Became Wealthy and Public Service

Following the war, he engaged in farming and stock-raising in Massachusetts before moving to Wyoming, then part of the Dakota Territory.  He settled in Cheyenne and engaged in mercantile, real estate and live stock and became quite wealthy.

He got involved in public ervice and served as a member of the Wyoming Territorial  Senate, Cheyenne City Council, Wyoming treasurer and mayor of Cheyenne.  In 1885, he was appointed Governor of Wyoming Territory and served from 1885 to 1890, when he was elected the first governor of the State of Wyoming.

Then he became a U.S. Senator and with a two year hiatus, served there until he died in 1929.  At that time he was the longest-serving senator.

Francis married a woman from Massachusetts, but they spent all their married lives in Wyoming.  They had two children, a boy and a girl.  The girl's name was Helen Francis and she married  General John J. Pershing of WW I fame.

--Old Secesh

Wyoming Gets New Sons of Union Veterans Camp-- Part 2

Membership in the SUVCW is restricted to men  who have direct or collateral ancestors who served in the Union military, in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Revenue Cutter Service.

The new camp's name is the same as a former camp in Sheridan that was formed in 1890.  Both camps are names after Francis Emroy Warren (1844-1929) who served  in the infantry of the Union Army as a noncommissioned officer in the  49th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers.

At the age of 19, he received a Medal of Honor for battlefield gallantry demonstrated at the Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana.  Later he was commissioned as a captain in the Militia of Massachusetts.  After the war, he served as the last territorial and first governor of Wyoming and was the last Civil War veteran as a member of the U.S. Senate.

He is also the namesake of  Francis Emroy Warren  Air Force Base in Cheyenne.

The new camp commander is Karl Falken.

Always good to see a new Civil War organization on the scene.  I myself am a member of the Camp Douglas Sons of Confederate Veterans here in Illinois.

Congratulations Camp Warren in Wyoming.  --Old Secesh

Jacob D. Cox-- Part 1: Man of Many Hats

From Wikipedia.

Author the "Campaigns of the Civil War:  March To the Sea:  Franklin and Nashville."

So, who was this man?  Quite a remarkable man as it turns out.

JACOB DOLSON COX

(October 27, 1828-August 4, 1900)

Statesman, lawyer, Union Army general,  Republican politician from Ohio, 28th governor of Ohio, founder of the Liberal Republican Party,  author, recognized microbiologist, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, educator, U.S. representative and businessman.  Quite a life for this man.

I will stay mainly with his Civil War service, but his life is well worth the read.

In 1855, Jacob Cox helped organize the Republican Party in Ohio and was elected to the Ohio state senate in 1859, where he formed a political alliance with Senator and future President James A. Garfield.and with Governor Salmon P. Chase.  Some very important men.

While in the state legislature, he accepted a commission with the Ohio Militia as a brigadier general and spent much of the winter  of 1860-1861 studying military science.

Like I Said, An Amazing Man.  --Old Secesh

Ed Bearss On Albert Cashier and U.S. Grant's Confederate Connection

Next Mr. Bearss talked about one interesting Union soldier named Albert Cashier, who actually was a woman by the name of Jennie Hodgers.  She was able to keep her sex secret until 1911 when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver and was hospitalized.

Then, it was back to Vicksburg where he said there were more Illinois units participating than any other state.  Their numbers came to about 40,000  (Wikipedia quotes a total of 77,000 men in Grant's army).  The Illinois monument has three medallions on it:  Lincoln is in the center, flanked by Grant and Civil War Governor Yates.

U.S. Grant was a good friend of Confederate General James Longstreet who stood up at Grant's wedding before the war.  When Grant got out of the Army before the war in New York City he was dead broke he borrowed money from future Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner.

--Old SecGrant

Clays of Ky., Green Clay Smith, Congressman and Montana Territorial Governor Ky.-- Part 6: An Unconditional Unionist, C

In 1862, he was elected as an Unconditional Unionist to the 38th Congress and resigned his military  post on December 1, 1863.  In Congress, he served on the Committee of Militia.  He was brevetted to major general of volunteers in 1865.

He resigned from Congress in 1866 after President Johnson appointed him to be Territorial Governor  of Montana.  During his tenure, he helped moderate tensions between the white settlers and Indians.

After he resigned from that, he returned to D.C. and became  an ordained Baptist minister and got involved in the temperance movement.

In 1876, the National Prohibition Party nominated him for president but he didn't receive but a little more than 9,000 votes.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

--Old Secesh

Wisconsin's Governor's Guard Trained With Ellsworth

From Warriors of the Rebellion.

Earlier, I was wondering whether or not the Governor's Guard militia group had trained/drilled with Elmer Ellsworth when I read that Lucius Fairchild, future colonel of the 2nd Wisconsin of the famed Iron Brigade and governor of Wisconsin, had joined this elite group in 1858 when Ellsworth was training militia groups in Wisconsin.  I surmised that he had.

According to this site, officers of the Governor's Guard from Madison had drilled with Elmer Ellsworth before he gained fame with the U.S. Zouave Cadets in Chicago.

So, They Had Met.  --Old Secesh

Lucius Fairchild-- Part 4: Wisconsin Governor, U.S. Dimplomat and C-in-C Grand Army of the Republic

He resigned from the Army on November 1, 1863 and was appointed Wisconsin Secretary of State which office he held 1864-1866, before serving three terms as the governor of Wisconsin.  He was in office at the time of the Peshtigo Fire and greatly helped relieve the suffering.

Fairchild was appointed U.S. consul to Liverpool in 1871 and consul general at Paris (1881-1882) and then was in Spain.

From 1886 to 1887, he was the  commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.

He is buried at Forest Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin.

--Old Secesh

Ohio's Edward F. Noyes-- Part 2

Edward F. Noyes eventually rose through the ranks to colonel of the 39th Ohio (when Cadman wrote about his poor service at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

He was wounded in battle on July 4, 1864, near Ruff's Mills, Georgia, and had his left leg amputated.  Three months later, Major General Joseph Hooker assigned him to command Camp Dennison in Cincinnati.

After the war, he resigned his commission and became city solicitor of Cincinnati and was elected governor of Ohio in 1871 and served until 1974.

--Old Secesh

Wisconsin's War Governor: Alexander Williams Randall-- Part 1

Back in March of this year, I was writing about Madison, Wisconsin's Camp Randall (now the home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers) which was named for the governor of the state during the Civil War.

Here is a follow up on him.

ALEXANDER WILLIAMS RANDALL   (1819-July 26, 1872)

Sixth governor of Wisconsin.  Lawyer, judge and politician.  Instrumental in raising and organizing Wisconsin'd first troops in the war.

Born in Ames, New York and moved to Wisconsin where he opened a law practice in Waukesha in 1840.  Elected governor in 1857 and reelected in 1859 as a Republican.  He was an ardent abolitionist and even suggested that Wisconsin secede if Lincoln wasn't elected in the 1860 election.

To Another secesh?  --Old Secesh

Georgia's Allen Daniel Candler: One Wife, One Baby, One Dollar and One Eye"

From Wikipedia.

Follow up on Candler from the previous post. I was unable to find further details on his helping Union General Dow to excape execution by the Montgomery mob, unfortunately. But, this is one interesting man as more research revealed.

Born Nov. 4, 1834 and died Oct. 26, 1910. State legislator, U.S. Representative and Georgia's 56th governor.

In May 1862, he enlisted as a private in the 34th Georgia Volunteer Infantry and was soon elected by the others as a first lieutenant.

He fought at Vicksburg, Missuionary Ridge, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta and Jonesboro and later was a colonel under Gen. Johnston in North Carolina at the end of the war.

He was wounded at Kennesaw Mountain and lost an eye at Jonesboro. When he made the comment that he had "one wife, one baby, one dollar and one eye" at the end of the war, he was saying that he was more fortunate than others.

Candler County, Georgia, is named for him.

--Old Secesh

Confederate Colonel Candler Protected Hated Union Officer: "One Wife, One Baby, One Dollar and One Eye"

From the January 12, 2014, Gainesville (Ga.) Times "Johnny Vardeman Column: 'Col. Candler defied mob to protect Union officer.' "

A.D. Candler of Gainesville, Georgia, was mayor, U.S. representative and Georgia's governor. But before that, he was a Confederate veteran.

At age 26, he enlisted in the Army as a private and one month later had been elected as 1st lieutenat and then captain within a year. Eventually, he rose to the rank of colonel.

He was once put in charge of transporting captured Union General Neal Dow to Richmond to be exchanged. Dow was an ardent abolitionist and much hated in the South. On the way to Richmond from Mississippi, Candler and his prisoner stopped in Montgomery, Alabama, and stayed at the Exchange Hotel (not bad for a prisoner to overnight in a hotel, I guess being a general, even an enemy general, has its privileges.)

Townspeople heard about Dow being there and a mob soon gathered with intentions of killing him. Candler hid him and eventually made a getaway.

Later, Candler lost his left eye at the Battle of Jonesboro. He made a famous statement at the end of the war that all he had was "one wife, one baby, one dollar and one eye."

During his political campaigns, he was referred to as "The One-Eyed Plough Boy From Pigeon Roost."

Old One-Eye. --Old Secesh

Three Confederate Officers At the Battle of Richmond Become Arkansas Governors-- Part 2

THOMAS J. CHURCHILL--  Born in Louisville, Kentucky and led the Kentucky Rifles in the Mexican War.  Captured in 1847.  Postmaster of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1857.

Became a brigadier general in March 1862.  Led a division at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky.  Later, some of his troops were the first sharpshooters used in the western theater.

Became a major general during the Red River Campaign. 

Became governor in 1880.  Was the last surviving general from the Battle of Richmond when he died in 1904.

Big Governorship Battle. --Old Secesh